Chapter 65
“Iris…Iris”, I heard Jack say from a distance
“Iris”, I heard again, more distinctly this time, as Jack’s face appeared in a nebula of patchy dots of light and darkness
“Are you ok?”, he asked again, worriedly, his features clear now
“Yes”, I said and smiled, feeling strangely comfortable lying on the asphalt, my head resting on Jack’s hands, my head and body light
“We’ll go back to the hotel now”, he said
“No…”
“What do you mean, no? Of course we are going back”
“I’d still like to walk to Corso Como, have something to eat there…”
“What? But you just got terribly scared and passed out, why do you want to keep walking around?”
I felt like I had been living on the edge from a while now, losing control over everything, including my life. Just few days earlier I could have died and now each moment seemed like a bonus, intense and all but granted. I feared for my life and felt fearless at the same time, I wanted to see through what was happening and take it all in, let the lymph of these places penetrate me, not letting go a single moment I could have with Jack. Because, after all, no matter how careful I was, these moments could be taken from me anytime.
“Because Corso Como is going to be a great spot, because we need food and because going to the hotel won’t make us any safer”, I said
Jack pulled me up and said, “I’ve asked you already, but how sure are you that the woman you saw was the one who caused the accident?”
Now I didn’t feel sure at all. I told Jack about the dreams at the hospital.
“It felt like a deja-vu and the suggestion of the atmosphere might have played strange tricks on my mind”, I said, trying to sound as reassuring as I could
“Ehm…”, Jack grumbled unconvinced but yielding nonetheless, pulling me up and unfolding the map he had left on the ground beside me to check our way.
“We just have to keep heading straight”, he said
We resumed our walk, leaving our melt cones behind. It was then I realized that few people had laid some perplexed gaze at me as I lay on the sidewalk, but nobody had stopped to ask if we needed a hand and the thought made me shiver. Would anyone help us if something worse than that happen?
And yet after few steps the liveliness of the place sank in me again, and I went back to my hunt for novelties displayed in the shops’ windows, although not with the same carefree merriness that had animated me earlier.
Every now and then someone passed with a cigarette between their lips, leaving a trail of smoke behind, pleasantly aromatic in the summer notes of the dimming day.